Soul Skin

By Jan Porter

5 Stars

Soul Skin is a wonderful story of a woman experiencing a mid-life crisis. When the phrase mid-life crisis is used it is often associated with men and not women, creating an expectation that women will always be satisfied with their lives, no matter how mundane they are. This book not only challenges this perception but really touches the heart.

Well written from the outset, this book does not rely on oversimplification to communicate with the reader but instead focuses on using the character of Navi and her emotions in order to drive the narrative forward and communicate with the audience.

The main character of Navi is very well written and very believable making her easy to relate to for any one reading this book. Her unhappiness is something that can be understood and empathised with as the source of her unhappiness and the way she experiences it are not overly laboured, which can often distance the reader.

The most interesting element of this novel is not that it is a woman experiencing a mid-life crisis but how she deals with it. Some many people that long to break free of the humdrum of everyday life run off to find themselves in Tibet or India only to return home after a few months transformed before they slowly change back into the people they were before.

What Navi does instead of going on a journey in her waking hours is experiences dream journeys instead. In these dreams she can travel across time and reach back to the past when she was happy as well reunite herself with loved ones that have drifted away. This book is a fantastic example of how fiction can challenge the way in which we perceive the world and how our actions all have consequences, some that can be far more wide reaching than we realise.

This book is a great read and will help you to throw open the doors and let the world outside in, especially if you are feeling like you are stuck in a rut.